Plenty of buyers if 'condemned' houses were to be renovated

Published on 25th January 2007 in Letters

Sir - In last week's Goole Times Cllr Beryl Beck-Taylor, in a response to a letter from myself, made several comments which I would like the opportunity to respond to.

Cllr Taylor states that "Renovation was never an option and that the £10 million was secured by ERYC for the demolition of these two streets plus the renovation of many other streets in the town." The fact is that the £10 million (over a period of four years) was originally coming from five different bodies, none of whom stated that the money was ring-fenced (i.e. it was not a condition of the funding that any demolition should take place). Correspondence from the Government Office of Yorkshire and Humber clearly states that Housing Board funding (the largest contributor - £5.5 million) is a 'non-ring-fenced allocation". Investigation would have turned up this clarification, as well as showing that Pathfinder funding very rarely depends on demolition, and certainly didn't in this case.

If renovation was never an option, Goole Town Council as a body do not think so, and this is reflected in Goole Town Council's motion on July 31, 2006, a meeting attended by Cllr Taylor. This motion states that "Goole Town Council should put in writing to the East Riding of Yorkshire Council that renovation should not be dismissed as an option and any well-costed and designed plans presented by any specialist in this field, should be considered as an alternative." The council resolved to accept the proposal.

If Cllr Taylor was representing the best interests of her ward, why didn't she raise the question of demolition much earlier than November, 2004? As an ERYC councillor she should have been aware of the proposals as early as December 2003, when the council's plans started to take shape. There would have been minutes circulating, and Cllr Taylor, as the representative of that ward would, or should, have been involved. Why was it left until late 2004 for the residents and stakeholders to be made aware of the severity of this issue?

As for the forthcoming CPO process, perhaps Cllr Taylor can tell me what type of CPO ERYC intend to issue, as the council has never been too sure in the past. Needless to say, each type has different qualifying criteria and by inference places different responsibilities upon the council. However, it should be clearly stated that under any CPO compensation scheme an individual should not be "worse off" as a result of the order. The compensation paid should be in line with a similar property in an un-blighted area.

Cllr Taylor also states that "I have asked officers to contact all residents who live around the Phoenix Street and Richard Cooper Street area to be sure that they have a say in the future of the site." Does this mean that ERYC are no closer to knowing what they would replace the 117 homes of Richard Cooper Street and Phoenix Street with? The consensus of opinion is that we have a desperate housing shortage in Goole, and that this is likely to worsen over the next few years, especially if the new jobs happen at Junction 36. Goole needs low-cost, affordable housing now. The renovation scheme currently on the table would provide exactly this and provide it in a relatively short period of time. We need this housing now, not in the next two to three years and we need housing within the reach of first-time purchasers.

If Cllr Taylor believes that demolition is the best option for a town that is desperately short of housing, that's her view and she is entitled to it. I, personally, do not share that view, either as a landlord or as a resident of Goole. Perhaps Cllr Taylor can tell us what ERYC plan to build on this site, should demolition ever occur, given that it will have swallowed up at least £12 million of taxpayer's money. This is £2 million over the original budget, which is supposed to also cover the regeneration of the remaining 40+ streets within the Statutory Renewal Area.

Yes, Cllr Taylor, no doubt I will have my day in court. If in fact I was thinking about myself I could, like you, have sold out to ERYC. Perhaps Cllr Taylor might be able to tell me where in Goole my tenant would be able to rent a four-bedroomed house. The answer is probably nowhere. This would have meant her leaving Goole, her children moving schools, etc.

I could have walked away but I decided to stay and fight what I consider to be a fundamentally-flawed decision on the part of ERYC to demolish 117 well-built houses - a pattern that has been repeated all over the North of England in the name of the Government's Pathfinder Scheme.

The houses in Richard Cooper Street and Phoenix Street could, when renovated, transform this part of Shuffleton from a rundown area (neglected by ERYC over a period of years) into a desirable and sought-after place to live. I would guarantee that these houses - once renovated and put back on the market to local residents at between £65,000 and £90,000 - would have no shortage of takers.

ALAN WILSON

Boothferry Road, Goole